1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable telephone which has been reduced in size and thickness and is provided with an image pickup device for converting an image received from a lens to an electric signal by an image pickup element.
2. Description of the Background Art
FIGS. 18A and 18B show an exemplary conventional portable telephone provided with an image pickup device. FIG. 18A is a front view partially showing the conventional portable telephone provided with the image pickup device. FIG. 18A shows a front case 3 of the portable telephone, a front opening 3a of the pickup device, and a liquid crystal display 5. FIG. 18B is a sectional side view of FIG. 18A. FIG. 18B shows an image pickup device 1, a circuit board (mother board) 2 of the portable telephone, a rear case 4, and a front opening 3b of liquid crystal display 5. Image pickup device 1 is electrically connected to and mounted on circuit board 2 by means of, e.g., soldering. FIG. 19 is a cross sectional view showing a structure of conventional image pickup device 1. FIG. 19 shows an image pickup element 101, a light receiving sensor 101a on image pickup element 101, a cylindrical portion for lens 102 also serving as a casing of image pickup device 1, a lens 103, a lead portion for input/output 104 used for the operation of image pickup element 101, and a package 10 integrally formed with lead portion for input/output 104. Image pickup element 101 is contained in package 10. A bonding wire 9 is electrically connected to lead portion for input/output 104. The above described conventional portable telephone provided with the image pickup device has front opening 3a for receiving light that is formed in front case 3 where image pickup device 1 is located. Image pickup device 1 receives light through front opening 3a and converts the image information received by lens 103 to an electric signal for output on the side of the portable telephone.
Generally, the pickup device is provided with a CCD (Charge Coupled Device), CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) or the like in a package, and a focusing lens positioned opposite the light receiving surface of the image pickup element. However, since a distance between the light receiving surface and a focusing lens, i.e., a focal distance, is governed by an optical law, the thickness of the image pickup device cannot be made smaller than the focal distance unless some kind of special lens is used. A special lens may ensure a focal distance by bending an optical path in an image pickup device by provision of at least one reflector in an optical system, so as to reduce the distance from the lens to the surface of the image pickup element. However, such a special optical part involves a difficulty in designing and, the bending of the optical path reduces a light amount, a brightness decreases in proportion to the bending frequency, leading to an image pickup device with inferior performance. Moreover, the conventional image pickup device is expensive since a prism mirror or the like is used as a reflector, leading to an expensive image pickup device and portable telephone. In addition, it is difficult to provide the image pickup device with reduced thickness.
The conventional image pickup device as shown in FIGS. 18A and 18B is provided in a space defined by one surface of a circuit board of the portable telephone and an outer case of a portable telephone opposite that surface. Thus, the thickness of the portable telephone becomes large. The large thickness adversely affects the overall outer shape of the portable telephone, e.g., results in a disproportionately large portion where the image pickup device is mounted. On the other hand, if the outer shape of the portable telephone is designed in consideration of the thickness of the portable telephone at the portion where the image pickup device is provided, the overall thickness of the portable telephone becomes large, whereby a portable telephone with reduced size and thickness cannot be provided. Moreover, in the conventional portable telephone provided with an image pickup device, an image pickup direction of the image pickup device is perpendicular to the circuit board on which the image pickup device is provided, so that the image pickup device can only be mounted in a direction that is parallel to a display direction of a liquid crystal display provided on the same circuit board. In this case, when a user takes an image of himself or herself (i.e., a self-portrait), visual lines toward the lens portion of the image pickup device and the liquid crystal display differ. As a result, the user cannot controllably display a desired image onto the liquid crystal display.
When the user takes an image other than the above mentioned self-portrait, e.g., a scenery, he or she takes an image while displaying the taken images onto the liquid crystal display as in a digital camera. However, since the image pickup device can only be mounted with its an image pickup direction being perpendicular to the circuit board, the image pickup device is mounted on the opposite side of the circuit board when images are taken while displaying a scenery or the like onto the liquid crystal display. As a result, the designing of the outer shape of the portable telephone may disadvantageously be restricted.
The present invention is made to solve the aforementioned problems. An object of the present invention is to provide a portable telephone provided with an image pickup device having a novel structure that allows reduction in size and thickness while avoiding the aforementioned problem associated with a disproportionate outer shape of the portion where the image pickup device is mounted.
To achieve the aforementioned object, a portable telephone with the image pickup device according to one aspect of the present invention includes: a case defining an outer shape of the portable telephone; a circuit board contained in the case and having an opening; an image pickup device; and a lead portion electrically connecting the circuit board and the image pickup device with the image pickup device inserted into the opening of the circuit board. The image pickup device has a lens focusing an externally received image, and an image pickup element converting the image focused by the lens to an electric signal. With this structure, a part of a focal distance in the image pickup device can be included in a thickness of the circuit board. Consequently, the thickness of the portable telephone can approach the focal distance irrespective of the thickness of the circuit board, so that the portable telephone can be reduced in thickness.
Preferably, in the present invention, the lead portion is bent and connected to the image pickup device. As such, the lead portion can be easily connected according to a relative positional relationship between the circuit board and the image pickup device with the image pickup device being inserted in the opening.
In the present invention, preferably, the lead portion is connected to the circuit board on the side opposite to the lens. With this structure, the image pickup device can be mounted by effectively making use of the back surface and the space on the back side of the circuit board, which have not been effectively used heretofore.
In the present invention, preferably, a liquid crystal display is provided in the case, and the lead portion has portions of different shapes on both sides of the image pickup device in such a way as to incline the image pickup device toward the side of the liquid crystal display with respect to the circuit board.
In the above described invention, preferably, the circuit board has first and second surfaces respectively forming front and back sides. The case has front and rear cases primarily covering the first and second surfaces of the circuit board, respectively. The lead portion connects the circuit board and the image pickup device to position the lens on the first surface side of the circuit board and to position the image pickup element on the second surface side of the circuit board. With this structure, a distance between the circuit board and the front case can be restrained with the lens positioned near the front case, so that the portable telephone with reduced thickness can be provided.
To achieve the above mentioned object, the portable telephone of the image pickup device according to another aspect of the present invention includes: a case defining an outer shape of the portable telephone; a circuit board contained in the case and having a cutout portion; an image pickup device; and a lead portion electrically connecting the circuit board and the image pickup device with the image pickup device being inserted into the cutout portion of the circuit board. The image pickup device has a lens focusing an externally received image, and an image pickup element converting the image received by the lens to an electric signal. The image pickup device is mounted on the circuit board to allow image pickup in directions parallel and perpendicular to the surface of the circuit board. Thus, the portable telephone with the image pickup device is provided which is user-friendly and which enables pickup of a user image as well as a forward scenery or the like.
In the above described invention, preferably, the circuit board has first and second surfaces respectively forming front and back sides, and a rotatable mechanism rotatably supporting the image pickup device in the cutout portion such that the image pickup device takes images in a desired direction with respect to the first surface and the second surface of the circuit board. With this structure, the image pickup device is made rotatable in the cutout portion, so that a compact rotatable image pickup device is provided.
In the above described invention, preferably, the rotatable mechanism includes a shaft fixed to the image pickup device, and a bearing rotatably supporting the shaft. Thus, a stable rotatable mechanism can be provided.
In the above described invention, preferably, the rotatable mechanism includes a holding mechanism capable of holding the image pickup device in a desired direction with respect to the first surface and the second surface. As such, the holding mechanism can prevent a user from inadvertently rotating the image pickup device when taking an image in a given direction.
The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.